The Closer: Love and Witchcraft

Perhaps making a little fun of competing shows such as NBC’s Medium, Deputy Johnson and her detectives take a little help from a self-professed psychic and Johnson’s quirky sister-in-law-to-be, Claire (Amy Sedaris), who envisions a river, a barking dog, a train, and an odd-looking tree linked to their current case, the death of horror director, a Mr. Thompson.  Claire offers her assistance while tagging along with Johnson for the day after Fritz is too busy setting up for a big take down on the El Jefe case.  Oddly, Claire’s images prove to be somewhat accurate, including the river, which ends up being the play Vermillion, a gothic tale of love and witchcraft set on the Vermillion River in Louisiana, that is later linked to the murder.  As the detectives continue to investigate, Thompson’s wife’s body is later discovered in her garage where the car had been left running.  But Claire’s abilities are scrutinized when she has a sketch artist draw up a picture of the person she believes is the murderer only to discover the drawing is of Pope.

Pope is not amused by Claire, the powers she claims to have, or the fact that he is the latest suspect in the case.  But Pope has some important information of his own when he tells Johnson there is a possible promotion for a member of her Major Crimes Unit.  Of course, he is not able to tell her who the person to be promoted will be, but does balk at her to try and focus on more than one case at a time.  At the office, things continue to heat up between Sgt. Daniels and Det. Daniels whose on- again, off-again relationship is back on.

Johnson has an easier time narrowing in on her suspect this episode, likely because the suspect has not covered their tracks or is as coldly calculating as last week’s attorney/serial killer.  Too bad Claire and her powers had not come along a little sooner.  Claire later believes her signals were crossed when she saw Pope’s image as the murderer, because she was channeling Johnson’s fear of commitment after one failed marriage and one failed affair with Pope earlier.  If only Johnson had an easier time with her relationships as she did figuring out murderers.

Season 4, Episode 14: Fate Line (originally aired February 16, 2009)

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Photograph courtesy of TNT and IMDbPro